Much like NLSIU Bangalore several months ago, NUJS Kolkata too has finally advertised to fill its vacant professorial positions, including the intellectual property (IPR) chair professor post that has been empty for more than three years after its former IPR chair Prof Shamnad Basheer had resigned.

The law school has advertised a total of 9 other faculty positions, including three for law professors.

The 12 June advertisement lists vacancies for three law professors, five assistant professors of law, one IPR chair professor and one assistant professor for economics. The applications are set to close on 17 July.

The law school’s current faculty strength is 34 consisting of six professors of law, including NUJS vice chancellor Prof Ishwara Bhat, and one professor on lien, two associate professors of law, 16 assistant professors of law, one associate professor for social sciences, three assistant professors for social sciences and one research fellow, according to its website.

Six of these faculty members were hired as part of the last recruitment in 2014, which had resulted in four full-time faculty members (Sanjit Kumar Chakraborty, Faisal Fasih, Sampa Karmakar and Mercy Khumlian Khaute) and three other ad hoc faculty members (Arun Krishnan, Mahesh Menon and Nizamuddin Ahmad Siddiqui) appointed as part of that drive, said the SJA.

The 2014 recruitment was in part triggered by February 2014 agitations by the SJA and students for the resignation of erstwhile registrar Surajit Mukhopadhyay and demanding greater access to the college’s financial affairs and teaching staff standards.

We have reached out to Bhat for comment by phone but have not been able to get through since the morning.

The NUJS Student Juridical Association (SJA) commented when contacted: “Having pushed for recruitment of faculty since January 2014 - which was followed by a faculty recruitment drive - the SJA has been committed to getting the administration to hire sufficient and competent faculty. The opening of 10 such positions gives us immense hope that better days await us in the near future.

“The General Body resolutions dated January 14, 2014 and September 23, 2016 which were passed with an overwhelming, almost unanimous majority have highlighted this issue,” added the SJA. “We thank the University administration for recognizing the legitimacy of our concern and hope that this will culminate in getting the best minds in legal academia on board.”

As we had reported, in September 2016 the NUJS student body had signed a no-confidence motion against Bhat, citing several reasons for their disappointment in him, including the lack of improvement in faculty quality and the increase in faculty attrition despite the recruitment drive of 2014.

Only very recently in April of this year, NLSIU Bangalore had advertised for permanent faculty after continual student pressure against a moratorium on hirings since 2009.